The job market it rough. If you’re looking then you’ve likely come across plenty of listings for internships, and you’ve probably thought about applying but you were quickly turned off by the lack of payment. I don’t blame you; however, in some cases these opportunities might be worth your consideration. Here are five questions to ask yourself before shying away completely from an unpaid internship.

1. Can you afford it? If you’ve graduated from college and the price of the real world has started to sink in, anything unpaid sounds a bit ridiculous. But maybe the pros would outweigh the cons if you’re looking for an investment into your future. Which leads us to the next question…

2. What are the hours? If you’re taking anything unpaid, chances are you can’t afford to do it for 40 hours a week. You will either have another job or school. Consider how it could fit into the other parts of your life. If you can do it remotely for some of the time, or it requires little face time in the actual office, then it might not be a bad fit with your other paying jobs.

3. Will it allow you to continue your search? If you do take an internship, you’ll probably still want to job hunt. Keep on keeping on, but make sure you are dedicated to your internship and do your tasks on time and well. Internships are a great opportunity for future references.

4. Is it for a company that offers interns future jobs? A lot of companies consider internships to be training grounds for future employees. If the internship in question is for such a company, it might be worth taking it for the potential alone.

5. Is it in a field of your interest and will it provide tangible experience? Some companies use their interns as coffee mules. It’s sad but true. Internships that provide actual experience are becoming more common, though. Companies are getting busier as the economy improves, but might not want to jump to hiring a full-time employee. These opportunities allow for tons of growth and education in the field of your choice.

So, the net-net? Do your research and make sure the opportunity is worth the expense and time. If it is, do your absolute best. Every experience for your resume will only make the job search easier in the future.

Happy hunting!

xo The Capitalista

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Alexandra Saville (@CapitalistaBlog) is a PR & Media Outreach Manager. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college.

Alexandra Saville

Alexandra Saville is the Media and Writing Specialist at Law Street Media. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college. Her blogs, The Capitalista and Capitalista Careers, focus on the young and the entrepreneurial.

The post 5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Taking an Unpaid Internship appeared first on Law Street.

Last year proved to be a solid year for startups as the kinks continued to be worked out with the JOBS act. There were 237 IPO debuts in 2013 — a 62 percent increase over 2012.

What does this mean for you in 2014, though? You’re (sort of) young. You’re (relatively) new to the work force. You are (in all likelihood) certainly no where near an IPO. So, why is this important? It’s important because things like this help to close the gap between where you are today and becoming what you’ve always dreamed. In many cases this means starting out on your own. Creating a company is one of the most fun, exciting, exhausting, and exhilarating things you can do, and we’re in a time of such overwhelming creativity that there is no limit to what you can achieve.

What makes a business owner is changing. It used to mean being someone who graduated with a business degree, took out a loan, and followed certain steps. Now, with the rise in crowd-funding that we saw in 2013, the path is a lot less stringent.

That, however, doesn’t mean that you can skip those fundamental steps. Just because it’s easier than ever now — with technology and resources at our fingertips — doesn’t mean that this is a career path for the lazy. It still takes hard work. Most small companies fail within the first year and more drop off within the second. Even after that you’re never really safe. The only way to keep your company afloat is to keep swimming hard — sometimes upstream.

One of my favorite books on the topic is The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber. I strongly suggest it to anyone going down the self-employment path. Anyway, one piece of his advice is to always work in the business as much as on  the business. This means, instead of just doing day-to-day work, you also have to work on the greater picture of what you want it to become. Do the networking, marketing, and social work as well. If more people did this, so many more businesses would stay, well, in business.

It’s definitely not for everyone. But I have a feeling that this year more people will discover the entrepreneur in themselves. If 2013 was any indication, 2014 should see a lot more entrepreneurs discovering their calling. Now is the time.

Maybe you’ll be next!

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Alexandra Saville (@CapitalistaBlog) is the Media and Writing Specialist at Law Street Media. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college. Her blogs, The Capitalistaand Capitalista Careers, focus on the young and the entrepreneurial.

Alexandra Saville

Alexandra Saville is the Media and Writing Specialist at Law Street Media. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college. Her blogs, The Capitalista and Capitalista Careers, focus on the young and the entrepreneurial.

The post The Year of the Entrepreneur appeared first on Law Street.

Unfortunately, it’s a tugboat and not a yacht, but whatever, we’ll get there.

It’s the first full week of the year, which means everyone is likely back at work or school. I’m sure we are all sharing the same levels of excitement about that fact.

In the spirit of this new year, I’ve decided to come out of hiding. For the past four or five months, I have been a ghost. Something about my life not being “perfect” in comparison to everyone else’s made me a bit of a social recluse. Obviously I still showered daily, went to the gym, returned (some) texts and emails, and made rare appearances at events, but my calendar was mostly empty.

Now that I’m a real person again, I’ve been making an effort to see and speak with my friends from whom I hid for so long. The good news: they don’t all hate me for being a terribly selfish person in the last quarter of 2013. The better news: their lives are, in fact, not perfect.  I repeat, they are living imperfect lives!

This fact may make me sound like a Debbie Downer who is all about ruining fun. Correct! I am.

More importantly, though, I was reminded of the all-important fact that the grass isn’t always greener. Through every problem that I thought I had, it turns out that I was not alone in my dramatic misery.

Problem 1: The Fun, Single Days are Long Gone

It turns out that this is a gross overexaggeration. Realistically, twenty percent of my friends are married, twenty-five percent are engaged, and thirty-five percent are in serious relationships. That leaves twenty percent of my friends to be single and fun with, but it’s not the same! Not to mention, I’m 27. That’s the age where it all starts happening: folks get married, have kids, and forget about me. ME!

Well, they may forget about me (all in my head), but they never forget about the fun years. Two things to think about:

1) Your married friends are jealous of you. Not all of the time; heck,  not the majority of the time.  Every once in a while, though, they have flashbacks to spring break 2006 and a single tear strolls steadily down their right cheek. That is where your power lies. Think about it: if you’re single, you can say “I want to hang out this weekend,” and it magically happens. When you’re married, it’s more of a “we want to see what you are doing three weeks from now when both of our schedules allow us to see you.”  Being part of a “we” is fun, and maybe even the ideal, but sometimes they miss the days when being an “I” was enough.

2) Marriage/engagement/Velcro-relationships do not render your friends dead and gone. I fully and proudly admit that all of my friends have awesome spouses, many of whom I consider friends now.  Let’s call a spade a spade: I like some of my friends’ significant others more than I like my friends.  Now I’ve said it! And yes, if that statement worries you, then you’re the friend I’m talking about.

Moving on…

Problem 2: I Can’t Find a Job!

So, many people that I graduated with are still unemployed. That sucks, but your jobs are coming friends (this is my new positive outlook, courtesy of 2014). We’re only nine days in, and remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.  In the end, you want your legal career to be like the Roman Empire anyway, right? Slowgoing at first, but after a few years it really takes off and you become a legal powerhouse. I mean, the Romans ruled the world for a very long time, but it took them a while to find their footing. Remember: if it’s good enough for Rome, it’s good enough for you!

In addition, allow me to shine some light in your tunnel of unemployment: working sucks. It sucks!  I live in Washington, D.C., and it is currently seven degrees. (Oh hey, Polar Vortex). Do you know what seven degrees feels like? It feels like weather that necessitates a day in bed watching a “Vanderpump Rules” marathon on Bravo, hiding under eight different blankets, and spending unthinkable amounts of  money on Seamless web. In other words, it’s a day in which one is not supposed to leave home.

But no, some gender-neutral person has decided that our society must be based on capitalism, so we need to go to work and make money. I have so many layers of clothing on that I look like I gained a solid sixty pounds in eight hours. It’s not attractive.

You, on the other hand, can sit on that couch, apply to jobs, and be comfortable in your underwear. I am not ashamed to admit my jealousy.

Problem 3: I Have a Job, but I Hate My Career 

If you hate your career, start looking elsewhere. Get out of that job! Life’s way too short. It’s 2014, and we’re not taking any of the crap from 2013 with us anymore. Plus, you know what “they” say: the best time to look for a new job is when you have one. Try and be discreet about your employment desires, because the last thing you want to do is piss off your current boss. Wait until you’ve gotten the new job and your obligations with the current company are donezo.

But the new job is coming. I hope you leave all of the baggage from the Challenger-like tragedies of last year in a garbage can, along with that sequined New Year’s Eve dress and “2014” glasses. (Sidenote: those glasses need to stop being a thing — they’re disgusting.)

The Takeaway

Here is the moral: whether you’re single, married, fat, thin, freezing, sweating your buns off, or any other ends-of-a-spectrum comparison, there are always people who would trade their first-born children to be in your position. I mean, at least you’re not Precious, right?

So take your JD, your body pillow, your license to practice law, your recently delivered Chinese food, your snuggie, and your remote and enjoy where you are right now (on the couch). Once you enter this rabbit hole that is the working world, you will rarely have that luxury. And don’t spoil the most recent episode of “Modern Family!” I haven’t seen it yet.

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Peter Davidson is a recent graduate of law school who rants about news & politics and raves over the ups & downs of FUNemployment in the current legal economy. Tweet him @PeterDavidsonII.

All .gifs provided by T.Kyle from RealityTVgifs, and the ridiculousness of America’s Second Family, the Kardashians-Jenners-Disicks-Wests-Odoms-Humphries.

Featured image courtesy of [Toby Oxborrow via Flickr]

Peter Davidson II

Peter Davidson is a recent law school graduate who rants about news & politics and raves over the ups & downs of FUNemployment in the current legal economy. Contact Peter at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post We’re All in the Same Boat appeared first on Law Street.

Hello again! I’m sorry for everyone who had to wait a full day to see what the universe has in store for his or her career this year. But the Capitalista only has so much time in a day! So here are the rest of the career horoscope predictions. If you missed your sign check out yesterday’s post.

*Once again, I am not an astrologer. I don’t even read my horoscope on a weekly basis…so don’t go out and quit your jobs based on anything in this post. Thanks!

Libra

Yahoo’s Advice: Ride the wave of fabulousness, dear. You so deserve it! Some may have accused you of being lazy in the past, but your own sweet rhythm gets the job done in your own time. Others are finally starting to see that you work quietly behind the scenes in your own relaxed but productive fashion. You just don’t appear as stressed out as others.

The Takeaway: Well. You seem to have achieved the unattainable. Everyone desires to be recognized without having to fight too hard, ruffle feathers, or stress out too much. Congratulations! What you’ve got going seems to be working for you. Just a piece of advice in case the road becomes bumpier — you usually have to ask for what you want. If you are working your ass off and want to further your career, most of the time you have to be your own biggest supporter. Sometimes you need a little courage to fight for what you want because people might not always hand it over.

Scorpio

Yahoo’s Advice: You are a fortress of money-generating power. Plus you’re more determined to stay on top of your debt than ever before — even if that means working yourself to the bone. You have the gift of maximizing your resources and connections with powerful people and marveling at how quickly your good fortune expands.

The Takeaway: Sounds like you’re working hard. Good for you! It’s always a good idea to put the extra hours in when you can. Remember that you don’t need to get through it alone. Reach out to your network.

Sagittarius

Yahoo’s Advice: 2014 is all about who you know, Sag, and luckily you’ll be bombarded by the enthusiasm and support of friends and colleagues all year long. The biggest theme is on social networking, so don’t underestimate the power of connecting. Always carry your business cards with you, and rarely turn down a party invite this year. Doors are pretty much guaranteed to fly open via friends.

The Takeaway: It’s amazing how far networking can get you these days. Keep those business cards handy. Utilize social media. Go to Meet Up groups. It never hurts to put your feelers out there for opportunities.

Capricorn

Yahoo’s Advice: You’ve been working your tail off the past few years with Pluto and Saturn pushing you past any remaining comfort zones — and the rewards are just beginning to peak. Plus, with Mars pushing you hard for the entire first half of 2014, there’ll be no rest for the weary. But not to worry because you’re at your best — and often happiest — whilst being an industrious little goat.

The Takeaway: You’re lucky. You do well when busy — which is a sign of most successful people. Even if you’re out of your comfort zone — which the Yahoo astrologer thinks you will be — you can work with that. Jumping in the deep end is scary at first, but even if you’re on a new playing field, working with new technology or in a new environment, you will learn to swim eventually. That will only help you in the future.

Aquarius

Yahoo’s Advice: You’ve got loads of planetary support to keep you thriving in whatever new projects you decide to take on. It’s easy to overdo it with your scheduling during the first half of the year, so be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. The steady stream of work will continue, so don’t be afraid to turn down a few projects if only to save your health and sanity.

The Takeaway: Sometimes less is more. It’s easy to get wrapped up in how many opportunities are presented — especially if you’re good at your job. Good for you for putting yourself out there and continuing to work hard, but if you take on too much there is no way for each project to reach its maximum potential. Stay busy but stay sane!

Pisces

Yahoo’s Advice: The stars are demanding that you find your passion and get practical about it, Pisces. You’re a gypsy and a total free spirit by nature, but this year you’re being asked to concentrate your energies and really focus on your passion. Yes, this means coming down from dreamland and getting serious about your career goals, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use those amazing visions you have while sleeping or daydreaming.

The Takeaway: You might be torn between your creativity and your desire for stability. There are so many opportunities today for people in the job force to combine passion with career. You can start a blog. Start a business on the side. Keep that creativity flowing. You can have your head in the air while keeping your feet on the ground.

Happy hunting, and Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a successful 2014!

xo The Capitalista

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Alexandra Saville (@CapitalistaBlog) is the Media and Writing Specialist at Law Street Media. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college. Her blogs, The Capitalista and Capitalista Careers, focus on the young and the entrepreneurial.

Alexandra Saville

Alexandra Saville is the Media and Writing Specialist at Law Street Media. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college. Her blogs, The Capitalista and Capitalista Careers, focus on the young and the entrepreneurial.

The post Your 2014 Career Horoscopes – Part Two appeared first on Law Street.

We’ve all been there. Many of us stay there — in a job that just doesn’t feel like our career. What do you do about this? Lose your will to live? No. But some people do fall down the slippery slope of losing their will to work. Or at least, to work hard.

It’s tough to stay motivated in a job that isn’t motivating. This wasn’t your goal. Wasn’t your dream. Maybe it wasn’t even your second or third or tenth choice. It is how you pay your rent.

In my previous post, we looked at the internal struggle people face who are looking for more from a work situation than just a paycheck. This generation of people entering the work force crave more than clocking in and clocking out. But sometimes it’s just all about the bills. It has to be.

That doesn’t mean that your dreams need to take the back seat. Today’s society is a breeding ground for a whole new model of entrepreneur. And guess what? It could be you. That entrepreneur is more creative than lucky. The great thing about the surge in technology, and other social advances, is that you can have so many things going on on the side. You want to start a business? There has never been a better time. With crowdfunding possibilities it might even be simpler to fund than ever before. You want to be a writer? You can start a blog. Self-publish a novel. The list is endless.

Maybe there is a way to have it all. At least as far as work goes. Maybe slinging cappuccinos isn’t your forever-and-always career. Maybe your administrative position really is just a way to make ends meet. You can still develop yourself and hone your skills. It takes time and dedication. It will feel like you’re working two full-time jobs. But maybe this will lead to the full-time day job that you’ve always wanted. So, develop a plan. Look into your funding options. Think about your goals. Put in the work after work. You never know where it might lead.

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Alexandra Saville (@CapitalistaBlog) is the Media and Writing Specialist at Law Street Media. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college. Her blogs, The Capitalista and Capitalista Careers, focus on the young and the entrepreneurial.

Alexandra Saville

Alexandra Saville is the Media and Writing Specialist at Law Street Media. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college. Her blogs, The Capitalista and Capitalista Careers, focus on the young and the entrepreneurial.

The post What’s Love Got to Do With It? appeared first on Law Street.

Anyone who’s nerdy enough about legal issues to read this blog has probably heard of a paper published last summer entitled “The Economic Value of a Law Degree.” It revealed the conclusions of a study by Seton Hall University law professor Michael Simkovic and Rutgers Business School economics professor Frank McIntyre. It’s the paper that caused quite a stir by purporting to burst the bubble of the haters who’ve been heaping scorn on law as a worthwhile course of study for today’s college graduates. In a nutshell, the authors examined official statistics about the earnings of law graduates and found that, hey, maybe law school is a good deal after all. Apparently—among other findings—the average JD can expect to earn about one million dollars more than he or she would have earned without having gone to law school.

Of course, the talking heads who’ve been making the biggest stink about the pitfalls of legal education for the past several years wasted no time putting the Simkovic and McIntyre study in their crosshairs. Above the Law’s Elie Mystal was particularly harsh, dismissing the report as an “advertising piece for law schools still hoping that they can trick prospective law students into making bad choices.”

Frankly, I share at least some of the misgivings about the validity of the study. Like Mystal, for instance, I think it makes no sense to compare law school grads’ earnings to those of college graduates who never pursued any postgraduate study. I think your average college student today is painfully aware that a bachelor’s degree by itself won’t give him or her enough coinage in the job market. I imagine that most of them probably contemplate law school as one of at least several other postgraduate study options, among them being journalism, business, accounting, economics, and any number of scientific and humanistic disciplines. So it doesn’t strike me as very meaningful to point out that today’s average college grad can expect to make a lot more money by going to law school than by simply diving headlong into the workforce and never leaving. It would be much more helpful to compare law school graduates’ earnings with those of people who’ve gone to business school, medical school and what have you.

Even so, I’ve always been a lot more sanguine about the study’s findings. While I habitually caution young people I know against charging headlong into law school, I’ve never done so for mercenary reasons. It would think that it would go without saying by now that earnings potential isn’t the only factor worth considering when choosing a career path. It’s critical to take other issues into account, such as job satisfaction, work-life balance and overall sanity. By those metrics, it seems, legal practice scores rather poorly. A 2007 survey by the American Bar Association found that almost half of the respondent lawyers were dissatisfied with their careers. They complained about long hours and dwindling civility among lawyers, as well as increasingly cutthroat competition and the poor work-life balance that comes with it. In the end, only 4 out of every 10 of them were willing to recommend a legal career to young people. (Remember what I wrote last month about none of the lawyers I’ve known ever encouraging me to study law?)

Keep one thing in mind: these results were gleaned in the late 2000s, before the so-called “Great Recession” and the squeezing of the legal industry (along with so many other professions, Lord knows) that it’s engendered.

So anyone tempted to dismiss warnings about lawyering based on the McIntyre and Simkovic study should take heed. As its title makes clear, the professors were only considering the monetary value of a law degree; the question of whether legal practice is worth its non-financial costs was beyond their ken. A college graduate who takes my advice, gets to observe lawyers’ daily toil and doesn’t develop any kind of passion (or at least a high tolerance) for it would be ill-advised to study law anyway simply because of the pay.

What’s more—as I learned the hard way—it’s damned hard to do well in law school if you have a hard time focusing on the turgid, deadening prose that you’ll find in most casebooks. Actually, I should have included this insight in my first article about advice for prospective law school applicants. When I was in high school, people who encouraged me to go into law—again, always non-lawyers—typically cited two facts: that I was a pathological bookworm and that law school involves a lot of reading. Dear God, if only it were that simple! You should never, ever listen that advice from a non-lawyer…at least not without asking, “But what kind of reading would I be doing?” When your advisor stares at you blankly (or has the decency to admit that he or she doesn’t know), that should tell you all you need to know about how valuable his or her advice really is. As for the actual substantive answer to the question, let me put it this way: Rare is the judge who knows how—or is inclined—to write an opinion in a way that won’t make you feel like your brain is melting and spilling out of your ears.

Even if Simkovic and McIntyre are right, and any college student not sure what to do after graduating would be several kinds of stupid not at least to consider going to law school, the inquiry doesn’t end there. It would be even stupider to dive into law school, chasing the almighty dollar, only to belly-flop into frigid, unforgiving waters. You’ve got to learn more about the profession than just the pay before deciding to pursue it. I think renowned actor Tom Hanks put it best during an appearance on Inside the Actor’s Studio, when asked what profession he wouldn’t like to try. His answer: “A lawyer. That’s doing homework for a living.” Heed well his wise words!

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Featured image courtesy of [Andy via Flickr]

Alexandra Saville

Alexandra Saville is the Media and Writing Specialist at Law Street Media. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college. Her blogs, The Capitalista and Capitalista Careers, focus on the young and the entrepreneurial.

The post So What if Law School is a Good Financial Deal After All? appeared first on Law Street.

In my last post, we talked about what you shouldn’t share with a potential new boss on an interview. Today we’re looking at what you should say. What you should shout from the rooftops, what could be the difference between yourself and another candidate.  Below are some thoughts on what you should definitely make known during your time in the interview chair. Again, these really should be obvious. But you know how it gets in an interview. The lights get bright, your palms get sweaty, shit gets real. A refresher never hurt anyone.

That you did your homework. Show the employer that you took the time to look into the company and the position. Quote the website! Quote LinkedIn! Don’t quote their personal Facebook…too far, too far.

If you did something really amazing at your old job. Did you implement a new system? Did you select the company’s logo that everyone loves? Did you help strategize a marketing plan? Were you always on time? Whatever you did, shout it loud, shout it proud. Now is not the time to be bashful. They want to know they’re making a solid decision hiring you. That you have something to contribute. So, voice your accomplishments. You can be confident without being cocky.

That you are eager to learn. If something comes up in the interview that you don’t know anything about, let them know that you’re a fast learner. Give an example of a time that you overcame a challenge in order to contribute to the team.

That you’re a team player. Employers have no interest in bringing someone on board who isn’t willing to work with the other staff. Talk about how you appreciate sharing ideas and thoughts.

Thank you. This is such an important last step. Even if the interview had flaws, even if you were five minutes late (but try not to be), people remember those who take the time to drop a quick message thanking them for their time. It only takes a few minutes, and it will separate you from the crowd because it is amazing how many people don’t do this. Don’t be lazy.

Happy hunting!

xo, The Capitalista

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Alexandra Saville (@CapitalistaBlog) is the Media and Writing Specialist at Law Street Media. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college. Her blogs, The Capitalista and Capitalista Careers, focus on the young and the entrepreneurial.

Featured image courtesy of [miuenski miuenski via Flickr]

Alexandra Saville

Alexandra Saville is the Media and Writing Specialist at Law Street Media. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college. Her blogs, The Capitalista and Capitalista Careers, focus on the young and the entrepreneurial.

The post Shout It Loud, Shout It Proud. What Your Interviewer Should Know appeared first on Law Street.